Improvement in steel scabbards for bayonets



NITED STATES PATENT Orme.

J. E. EMERSON, OF TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,209, dated August 19, 1862.

.To all whom ff-may concern:

Be it known that I, J. E. EMERSON, of Trenton, in the county of Mercer and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Y Scabbard for Angular Bayonets; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and eXact description of the same, reference'being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figurel is a perspective view of my improved scabbard. Fig. 2 is a transverse seetion ofthe same at x. y i

The subject of my said invention is a new article of manufacture, consisting of a scabbard for angular bayonets made of steel, as hereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention pertains to fully understand and make the same, I will proceed to describe it and the mode of its manufacture. c) A A is the scabbard proper, formed of sheetsteel, in the shape represented, so as to suit the angular bayonet in common use.

B is the band or mouth-piece connected by rivets b Z to the loop O, by which the Scabbardis suspended from the belt. In the present illustration the band B and loop C are represented as formed of leather. If preferred, the

' former, or even both, may be made of steel as Well as the scabbard.

The manner of' constructing the steel scabbard is as follows: The steel is rst rolled in sheets of the required thickness and cut in pieces of the requisite size to form around a mandrel of the size and shape desired for the inside of the scabbard. It is then formed around the mandrel by means of a ponderous press provided with dies of the shape desired for the outside of the scabbard, the edges of the plate lapping across the Whole Width of one edge of the scabbard, as shown at a in Fig. 2. The joint formed by the lapped edges and the lower end is then closed by brazing With brassor spelter in the usual manner. The scabbard is then ground and polished, and may be blued or bronzed, as preferred.

The steel scabbard is superior to the leather in many respects.

First. It is very much more durable, in consequence not onl y of the less perishable'nature of the material, butowing to the avoidance of manydisadvantageswhichareinseparablefrom the manufacture of the leather scabbard. The

latter has to be provided with a massive metal tip, the weight and consequent .motion of which, when the scabbard is empty, soon produces a bend and fracture in the leather and the scabbard is destroyed. Again,the stitches by which the leather is joined are frequently ruptured by the point of the bayonet in entering, and many scabbards are destroyed in this manner.

Second. In the exposure to which it is una voidably exposed, the leather scabbard admits and retains moisture, causing the bayonet to rust. This difficulty is entirely obviated by the steel scabbard.

Third. The steel scabbard costs formaterial l from one-third to onehalf as much as the leather, and by means of machineryv maybe made with less labor. y K Fourth. The bayonet may be sheathed much more quickly With a steel scabbard, owing to its being rigid and constantly of one size and form. For this reason the bayonet will slip in by its own Weight on the point being inserted within the scabbard, and the friction of the steel against steel secures it from being thrown outaccidentally. Theleather scabbard, on the contrary, being pliant andconstantly changing in form, requires the bayonet to be pressed in with considerable force. 1 I am aware that steel has long been used in the manufacture of scabbards for swords, sa-

bers, swordlbayonets, dirks, and knives, and therefore .do not desire to be understood as claiming such as my invention. f y

My invention is confined to the manufacture of steel scabbards for the angular bayonet commonly used with the Springfield riilemus`ket or other analogous musket or gun, which scabvbard has never been successfully made of steel.

I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent as a new article of manufacture-v An angular bayonet-scabbard constructed of steel, formed around-a mandrel by pressing, and united at its edges in the manner and for the purpose herein specified. Y l

The above specification of my improved bayonet-scabbard signed this 30th day of April, 1862.

J. E. EMERSON. 

